AIR TRANSPORT
Russians thrive
as traffic falls
Russian airlines' passenger traffic dropped by 35% in
1993 and cargo throughput
fell by 23% compared with
1992, according to figures
from the Ministry of Trans
port's Department of Air
Transport (DAT). The indus
try recorded large profits,
however, instead of losses.
The DAT reports that, in
1993, registered commercial
operators flew 83.2 billion
passenger-kilometres, with 40
million passenger boardings,
and carried 555,000t of mail
and cargo. The average com
mercial load-factor in 1993
was 58.6%.
The department estimates
that, in 1993, profits of com
mercial operators will amount
to 320 billion roubles (about
$200 million), of which Aero-
flot-Russia International Air
lines is responsible for 233
billion roubles. This is a
significant step forward from
1992, when losses of commer
cial operators amounted to
56.3 billion roubles.
There were 87 accidents in
1993, including 11 fatal
crashes, in which 222 people
died and 28 aircraft were writ
ten off. This compares with
accident figures of 123, 25 and
212, respectively, for 1992.
The DAT records 634 "inci
dents" because of aircraft
faults. The most frequent
cause was engine failure on
the Tupolev Tu-154, the
Ilyushin 11-62, the Antonov
An-2 and the Mil Mi-8 heli
copter. It notes that no design
measures have been imple
mented to eliminate failures of
shaft bearings in the D-30KU
engines of the Tu-154M and
I1-62M and in the VR-8 gear
boxes of the Mi-8.
Four hijacks occurred in
Russia in 1993, with two re
sulting in flights abroad and
two being aborted by security
forces. During pre-flight secu
rity-control procedures 1,700
fire-arms and 12,000 cold-
steel weapons were confis
cated, along with more than
4t of explosives and 40kg of
drugs, the DAT says. •
Europe moves on pilot-report plan
BY DAVID LEARMOUNT
The European Commission (EC) has proposed an
infrastructure for a continent-
wide, co-ordinated, commer
cial-aviation confidential
reporting system, encouraging
pilots who might otherwise not
record a potentially dangerous
incident to do so with guaran
teed anonymity.
Several European Union
(EU) member countries already
have national systems, but the
co-ordinated system, the Euro
pean Confidential Aviation
Safety Reporting (EUCARE)
network, would have a central
database with specialist soft
ware capable of processing data
Vietnam plans sell-off
Vietnam is planning a lim ited privatisation of state-
owned Vietnam Airlines,
together with smaller carriers
Pacific Airlines and Vietnam
Air Services.
The country's civil-aviation
administration says that it will
submit plans to the Govern
ment to sell a minority share in
Vietnam Airlines and Vietnam
Air Services (VASCO) and to
"re-organise" Pacific Airlines.
Although the Government
would still own majority stakes
in the three carriers, either
directly or through state-owned
companies, shares would be
traded to investors on the
planned new stock exchanges.
With the US export embargo
against it lifted, Vietnam is in
the market for aircraft pur
chases or operating leases and
is looking for around 15 me
dium- or long-haul aircraft be
tween now and the year 2000.
Vietnam expects passenger
traffic growth to exceed 30% a
year, matching the explosive
development of neighbouring
China. Vietnam Airlines and
VASCO will also need up to
ten smaller aircraft for domes
tic routes and are looking at
ATR 42s and 72s, Fokker 50s
and de Havilland Dash 8s.
The last of five Airbus A320s,
wet-leased from Air France,
have now been delivered. •
from national units to detect
continent-wide trends.
A steering group, consisting
mainly of accident investigators
and other safety specialists
from eight of the 12 EU na
tions, met in Brussels in early
March to review a year's pro
gress in defining and preparing
for such a system, says the
responsible EC commissioner,
Jean Paul Henrotte.
The steering group confirms
that the Technical University of
Berlin should operate the cen
tral database. The University,
previously given the task of
developing a German national
confidential reporting system,
is already half way through a
two-year contract to develop
the EUCARE software.
The group also recommends
that national confidential-
reporting systems should be
operated in countries which
have a large enough civil-
aviation industry to ensure an
onymity for those who file
reports, and regional offices
should cover two or more of
small countries, says Henrotte.
Systems such as the UK's confi
dential human-factors incident
reporting system (CHIRP)
should continue to operate,
passing data also to Berlin.
Those nations or areas not
covered by such systems
should set them up, the steer
ing group recommends.
Henrotte says that the group
has also initiated legal studies
and considered financial provi
sions. Now the embryo
EUCARE has to approach all
the organisations which would
have to become involved, says
Henrotte. There will be a fur
ther year of research and defin
ition, he estimates, followed by
a year getting the political
clearance and action, then an
other 12 months to set up the
defined organisation.
As a result, EUCARE is not
expected to be fully operational
until 1997. D
USAir demands union help for cost cuts
USAir is asking its workforce for sweeping
savings on wages as the loss-
making carrier comes under
intense pressure to cut back on
cost levels which are among
the highest of any US airlines.
The carrier has called its four
major unions to begin "sub
stantive talks" on cost reduc
tions and productivity im
provements. US newspaper re
ports suggest that union lead
ers are likely to be asked for
US airline costs per
available seat mile
Southwest*
Continental
American
United
Delta"
Northwest
USAir**
* Excludes Morris
1993
07.20
07.91
08.81
09.33
09.41
09.58
011.09
1992 Change
07.03 2.4%
07.68 3.0%
08.93 (1.3)%
09.62 (3.0%
09.44 (0.3)%
09.49 0.9%
010.82 2.5%
Air ** Before re-structuring costs
wage concessions worth $500
million in each of the next
three years, when they met
with the carrier's management
on 15 March.
Chairman Seth Schofield
warns that USAir must cut
costs, if it is to "...remain viable
in a low-fare competitive envi
ronment". The airline has al
ready slashed many business
fares by up to 50% as it battles
to match the prices being of
fered by low-wage carriers such
as Southwest Air
lines or the new
CALite service being
offered by Conti
nental Airlines.
USAir has warned
that its losses are
likely to worsen this
year, adding to a
deficit of more than
$2 billion racked up
over the past five
years. Losses in
1993 stood at $383
million after charges
were made.
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 16 - 22 March, 1994